Taiwan rejects ‘one-China principle' as support for independence rises: poll

Support for Taiwanese independence increases 12% in a month

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation (TPOF, 台灣民意基金會) released the results of their newest survey today, revealing that only 25 percent of the Taiwanese public support the idea of “one country two systems,” and 68 percent do not agree with China’s “one-China principle.”

The poll also revealed that 47.5 percent expect some kind of Taiwanese independence to take place in the future.

The results show a 12 percent increase in support for Taiwanese independence when compared to last month’s results. TPOF suggested that recent threats by Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) had encouraged people who previously supported the status quo to move towards supporting Taiwanese independence.

On Jan. 2, Xi threatened Taiwan to accept unification, and reserved the right to use force to this end. In response, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that “Taiwan will never accept a ‘one country, two systems’ framework,” and called on the international community to support its democracy against Chinese threats.

The survey also showed that 68 percent of respondents do not agree that China and Taiwan belong to “the same China.”

TPOF suggested that as the survey showed 47.5 percent expect Taiwan independence to take place in the future and only 22.7 percent expect unification, the idea that the Taiwanese people want to maintain the status quo indefinitely is a myth.

The poll was conducted by Focus Survey Research (山水民意研究) on Jan.14-15 via telephone, and included 1,074 effective responses. The survey was commissioned by TPOF.